by Jacqueline Field

There are people who know exactly what a Bates bedspread is and may well have grown up with one on their bed. However, they probably don’t know about all the other textiles that the Bates Manufacturing Company produced. Using corporate records, factory-floor pictures, and a wealth of promotional materials, Jacqueline Field tells a fascinating story about the Bates Mill and its products. While she details the company’s history and its evolution from a thriving New England textile manufacturer to its eventual demise, the real richness of the book is in the images and Field’s narrative about the Bates textiles themselves and the company’s advertising campaigns. Now we’ll all know about Bates bedspreads and so much more. -Diane Affleck Fagan, Author of Just New from the Mills: Printed Cottons in America

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Author Jacqueline Field includes just the right amount of detail so the reader is impressed with the creativity and range of Bates products. The company’s creativity means not only their response to the times, but their designs, inventions, products, and advertising. The story is an important subject for those interested in textiles and also for the mill communities in Maine and elsewhere. This book gives us a detailed insight into an aspect of textile production that is not usually covered. -Judith Wentzell, Art Librarian

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Textiles and Designs: Bates Mill 1930–1990 documents Bates Mill’s most significant mid-to-late-twentieth century fabrics for the first time, showcasing the all-encompassing world of colorful jacquard and screen-printed designs found in Bates Mill’s famous bedspreads, drapery, household goods, and fashion fabrics. They are placed within the mid-century ethos of marketing, modernity, consumerism, and fashion’s growing influence on interior décor. Author Jacqueline Field has organized the well-illustrated chapters by theme rather than time line. Designed to be enjoyable for both the general reader and those whose curiosity extends to that vast world of what is now referred to as material culture, this book will delight the senses and give food for thought. -Edward Maeder, Textile and Costume Historian, Museum Professional, Author and Lecturer About the Author Jacqueline Field was born and educated in Scotland. A longtime U.S. resident living in Portland, Maine, she turned to scholarly textile research and writing after a long college career teaching textile subjects, and as a textile and costume curator. She is coauthor and editor of the award winning book, American Silk 1830–1930, and has published numerous journal articles, including “From Agriculture to Industry: Silk Production in Maine,” “Bernat Klein’s Couture Tweeds,” “A 1916 Silk Ensemble: Linking Local and House Museum History,” and encyclopedia essays. She served on the National Board of the Costume Society of America and is a member of the Textile Society of America.

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